British Gas, Standard or Websaver?

robrymond

Just moving into a new apartment which is supplied by British Gas. Prices on the phone were £36 pm by DD for Gas and £30 for Elec by DD per month.

Would I save anything by immediately switching to the Websaver 3 tarrif, or is it worth just waiting to see what our energy usage is first?

Gerrard_8_lfc

Well websaver both gas and elec promise to be 6% cheaper than BG standard tariff.:cool:

robrymond

What is the catch, is it literally paperless billing that reduces the price further? I read somewhere that it may not work out better for those on low energy usage policies but obviously we don't know yet what our annual usage will be!

Gerrard_8_lfc

Paperless billing and meter reading provided by you and theres a cancellation charge if you leave before this december im sure.

Low usage or not its still cheaper than standard as Tier 1 banding is still 125 kwh a quarter for elec and 670 kwh for gas.

kippen_noedel

I did a search using my own post code and found nPower is £17 cheaper for the year.

Use your own post code and try a few different comparison sites, if they all give the same result for your own area.

Both contracts have their downside, BG cancellation fees if you leave this year, nPower you need to stay a year to get their final discount.

So you need to look around, check a few comparison sites and read conditions before you commit.

robrymond

Thanks for the advice, Npower seems a tad cheaper but only marginally. Will look into switching to Websaver!

1carminestocky

kippen_noedel wrote: »

I did a search using my own post code and found nPower is £17 cheaper for the year.

Use your own post code and try a few different comparison sites, if they all give the same result for your own area.

Both contracts have their downside, BG cancellation fees if you leave this year, nPower you need to stay a year to get their final discount.

So you need to look around, check a few comparison sites and read conditions before you commit.

Agreed 100%. The npower annual discount is a good example of some of these tariff's 'hidden shocks'. If you don't stay with that tariff for at least 12 months (or miss on monthly payment) then in actual fact it's one of the most expensive on the market for many, on account of the annual discount (which isn't paid for a full 12 months) being included in the figure quoted on the comparison sites. It really is time the regulator got hold of the market and started actually, err, regulating.

littletommytucker

and meter reading provided by you

....not true. Your meter will still be read in the same way it would be on the standard tariff.

robrymond

So what exactly is the point of providing online readings then?

Gerrard_8_lfc

littletommytucker wrote: »

....not true. Your meter will still be read in the same way it would be on the standard tariff.

Funny you should say that the wee guy from BG turned up today wanting to read my meter.... I was rather confused the weird and wonderful BG suprises lol.

1carminestocky

Maybe I dreamt this so apologies if it's incorrect (and i genuinely can't be @rsed to search for it in BGs T&Cs) but I'm sure I read in the afore-mentioned T&Cs that, if you don't log into your online BG account a certain amount of times over the course of 12 months, BG reserve the right to automatically transfer you to their standard tariff?